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Actress Lindsay Lohan appeared on NBC's “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and talked candidly about her recent struggles, maintaining that she is “in the clear” and “focused.”

Lindsay Lohan appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” to clear her conscience, days after learning she will serve time for violating probation.

Leno opened not with the obvious question about Lohan’s upcoming shoplifting trial and her recent sentencing, but with a query about a John Gotti movie in which she'll play the dead mobster's daughter-in-law. And then, the transition: “[The Gotti movie] is the first really good news you’ve gotten in a while.”

There was raucous cheering from the audience. Lohan looked practiced and demure (a fancy updo replaced Lohan’s usual bedhead look) as she explained herself. “I’ve made a lot of poor decisions in the past, and I’m dealing with a lot of those poor decisions. I have to work to gain respect back.”

Lohan will serve her sentence in a few parts—120 days in jail, followed by 480 hours of community service. Though she made the $75,000 bail within five hours of her sentencing and is appealing the community service, she’ll still have to start her janitorial duties by next week.

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“I think I was treated the way I should be treated,” Lohan said, though the initial bump from misdemeanor to felony was “a bit shocking.”

Though the interview was far from a tell-all, Leno breeched the topic of LiLo’s childhood, something Lohan said affected who she is today. “Being young…you don’t really take the time to appreciate what you have.” But she wasn’t making excuses. “I’m 24, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and I recognize that.”
Leno asked LiLo where she thinks she’ll be in six years. “Hopefully, sitting here, after I’ve won an Oscar,” Lohan said.

According to The New York Post, Lohan will serve 360 hours at the downtown Women’s Center, and an additional 120 hours at the Mission Road coroner’s office. Don’t worry—Lohan won’t have to deal with corpses. “We have community service workers all the time,” coroner’s office Assistant Chief Ed Winter told the LA Times.

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“They do janitorial tasks. They clean up and sweep up.”

And, as Winter ostensibly pointed out to People, “She won’t be handling any dead bodies but she’ll certainly see them.”

Lohan will go to trial June 3 for her grand theft—now misdemeanor—charge, with a maximum penalty of an additional year in prison.